Gamespy announced that on May 31st they would cease their online services after nearly fifteen years in operation. While it is always sad to see a games outlet crumble away, what is even sadder is that many games, particularly older titles, relied on Gamespy servers to host their multiplayer functionalities. With a hefty number of">

Gamespy Servers Shut down Today, Many Classics Set to Expire

Earlier in the year, Gamespy announced that on May 31st they would cease their online services after nearly fifteen years in operation. While it is always sad to see a games outlet crumble away, what is even sadder is that many games, particularly older titles, relied on Gamespy servers to host their multiplayer functionalities. With a hefty number of games affected by this outage, we decided to check into some of the more popular games which, up until today, utilized Gamespy.

Older titles from the Battlefield franchise (Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Vietnam) look like they’re being abandoned by EA. In a statement released by EA following the Gamespy announcement, EA said, “…our teams have been working to evaluate options to keep services up and running. Unfortunately, due to technical challenges and concerns about the player experience, we do not have a solution at this time.” However, the newer Battlefield games (Battlefield 2, Battlefield – Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 2142) look like they are getting transitioned over to Origin.

Some of Rockstar’s games hosted on the Gamespy service will largely go unaffected, (notably Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto 4) as the developer has been working on solidifying a new system to ensure these games remain playable online. However Midnight Club Los Angeles, Max Payne 3, and Midnight Club 3are not so lucky.

Activision very promptly dealt with any rumors about their titles. In a statement issued to IGN, Activision said, “Activision won’t be affected.”

Two of 2K’s biggest franchises, Borderlands and Civilization are currently in the process of migrating over to Steamworks, but the fate of the PlayStation 3 versions of those titles remain unknown. Some of 2K’s older titles will definitely not be returning online though, as revealed in 2K’s official statement.

Trendy Entertainment spoke to Game Informer about how the Gamespy shutdown will affect non-Steam version of Dungeon Defenders, but the development studio is working on their own program to allow Dungeon Defenders’ multiplayer to function on its own. They will then implement this technology into Dungeon Defenders 2, ensuring that such an outage does not happen again.

The Gamespy shutdown also prompted the closure of Nintendo’s DS and Wii online functionalities, as both systems relied on the service for online support.

While some will view the closure of Gamespy as fatal for the affected games, a service called GameRanger is doing what it can to incorporate the affected games, ensuring their multiplayer functionalities remain operational. GameRanger boasts an impressive list of games which it already supports, so players can continue on playing multiplayer in the wake of Gamespy’s shutdown.